Responding to the Chancellor’s UK Government Autumn Budget 2025 statement (Wednesday 26 November), Colin Wilkinson, Managing Director of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association commented:
“The Chancellor announced that there would be rates reform for the retail, hospitality and leisure sector in England from April 2026, but conveniently did not give any indication of what those reforms would be. A specific poundage rate of 35p in the pound has been suggested by many organisations, but we understand that any specific reduction may now only be 5p in the pound – not exactly the level of reform in England that the Licensed Hospitality Sector in Scotland was hoping for, to then put pressure on the Scottish Government to introduce substantial reforms as soon as possible.
What’s more, it is absolutely galling for the Chancellor to stand there and take credit for freezing employers’ national insurance contributions this year, after what she hit employers with in the 2024 Budget.
We are a staff-intensive industry and employ a large number of young people – national minimum wage has increased again and is now 65% more than it was five years ago. National living wage also increased again so that means additional costs for employers in terms of both wages and employers’ contributions. Let’s also not forget staff on higher levels of pay will also be looking to maintain their differential with staff at lower levels of responsibility.
There was absolutely nothing in the Budget to help mitigate these increased costs. We have already lost over 110,000 jobs in the UK hospitality sector, more than half of businesses have cut staff numbers, staff hours have reduced on average by over 7%, and licensed premises in the UK this year are closing at a rate of 11 per week.
Once again, this is a UK Budget that provides very little cheer for licensed hospitality operators north of the Border.
Meanwhile, soaring costs of doing business and pressure on customer spending have pushed hospitality leaders’ optimism down to a five-year low, according to the latest UK Business Confidence Survey from CGA. Staffing costs, high inflation, and low consumer confidence continue to weaken the hospitality industry across the UK and we know of several examples of businesses putting expansion plans on hold, cutting staff hours and raising prices to stay afloat.
We of course welcome the £820 million of funding for Scotland through Barnett consequentials and urge the Scottish Government to allocate some of this to support the licensed hospitality sector in Scotland.”